Optical lithography has been the technique of choice employed for forming circuit patterns in integrated circuits. Typically, ultraviolet light is directed through a mask. A mask is similar in function to an "negative" which is used in ordinary photography. However, the typical mask has only fully light transmissive and fully non-transmissive regions as opposed to an ordinary negative which has various "gray" levels. In the same manner as one makes a print from a negative in ordinary photography, the pattern on the mask can be transferred to a semiconductor wafer which has been coated with a photoresist layer. An optical lens system provides focusing of the mask patterns onto the surface of the photoresist layer. The exposed photoresist layer is developed, i.e. exposed/non-exposed regions are chemically removed. The resulting photoresist pattern is then used as a mask for etching underlying regions on the wafer.
In recent years, demands to increase the number of transistors on a wafer have required decreasing the size of the features but this has introduced diffraction effects which have made it difficult to further decrease the feature size. Prior to the work of Levenson, et. al., as reported in "Improving Resolution in Photolithography with a Phase Shifting Mask," IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, VOL., ED-29, Nov. 12, December 1982, pp. 1828-1836, it was generally thought that optical lithography would not support the increased density patterning requirements for feature sizes under 0.5 microns. At this feature size, the best resolution has demanded a maximum obtainable numerical aperture (NA) of the lens systems. However, the depth of field of the lens system is inversely proportional to the NA, and since the surface of the integrated circuit could not be optically flat, good focus could not be obtained when good resolution was obtained and it appeared that the utility of optical lithography had reached its limit. However, the Levenson paper introduced a new phase shifting concept to the art of mask making which has made use of the concepts of destructive interference to overcome the diffraction effects.
Ordinary photolithography, with diffraction effects, is illustrated in FIG. 1(a)-1(d). As the apertures P1 and P2 become closer, N becomes smaller, and as seen in FIG. 1(b), the light amplitude rays which pass through P1 and P1 start to overlap due to diffraction effects. These overlapping portions result in light intensity at the wafer, FIG. 1(d), which impinges on the photoresist layer. Accordingly, due to diffraction, the intensity of the wafer no longer has a sharp contrast resolution in the region between P1 and P2.
As illustrated by FIG. 2(a) to 2(e), it is possible to make use of the fact that light passing through the masking substrate material, FIG. 2(a), 51, (and FIG. 2(b), 51') exhibits a wave characteristic such that the phase of the amplitude of the light exiting from the mask material is a function of the distance the light ray travels in the substrate material, i.e., thickness t.sub.1 and t.sub.2. By making the thickness t.sub.2 such that (n-1)(t.sub.2) is exactly equal to 1/2.lambda., where .lambda. is the wavelength of the light in the mask material, and n=refractive index of the added or subtracted natural material, then the amplitude of the light existing from aperture P2 is in opposite phase from the light exiting aperture P1. This is illustrated in FIG. 2(c) showing the effects of diffraction and use of interference cancellation. The photoresist material is responsive to the intensity of the light at the wafer. Since the opposite phases of light cancel where they overlap and since intensity is proportional to the square of the resultant amplitude, as seen in FIG. 2(d), contrast resolution is returned to the pattern.
FIG. 2(a) and FIG. 2(b) illustrate two different techniques for obtaining the interference phase shifting. In FIG. 2(a), the light transverses through a longer distance via deposited layer 52. In FIG. 2(b), the light in region P2 transverses through a shorter distance by virtue of an etched groove 52' in the wafer 51'.
Phase shifting masks are now well known and there are many varieties which have been employed, as more fully set out in the article by B. J. Lin, "Phase-Shifting Masks Gain an Edge," Circuits and Devices, March 1993, pp. 28-35. The configuration of FIG. 2(a) and FIG. 2(b) have been called alternating phase shift masking (APSM). Several researchers have compared the various phase shifting techniques and have shown that the APSM approach is the only known method proven capable of achieving resolution 0.25 microns and below, with depth of field as large as .+-.0.34 microns with an I line stepper. Alternating PSM can be implemented in dark and light field mask versions. If the dark field strategy is employed for alternating PSM, a negative tone photoresist must be employed and if the light field version is employed, a positive photoresist must be chosen. The positive resist portion which is exposed to UV is removed during development and vice versa for negative resist.
As illustrated in FIG. 2(e), the process for making and using binary masks have been highly computerized. The designer of complex integrated circuits now works at a computer terminal and specifies a circuit design on a computer which requires compliance with certain predetermined design rules, 80. The initial design is validated using a design rule checker software 88. Accordingly, when the functional design is completed, a computer aided design tool program 81 automatically creates a digital bit map or vector file called a PG Tape 82 which represents the data in a standard and known data format for manufacturing the mask to accomplish the design. These digital files are then used to control automatic processes for manufacturing the masks, typically resulting in a magnified, e.g. 5.times., physical reticle, 83, containing the mask pattern for each layer of the integrated circuit. The mask is then typically installed in a wafer stepper (a step and repeat optical tool) 84, which automatically carries out the lithographic exposure repeatedly on the wafer 87 by exposing the photoresist layer 85 at a physical location and moving the wafer, i.e. stepping, and repeating the same exposure at an adjoining location.
To date, due to various difficulties, alternating phase shifting masks have not generally been able to be designed automatically by the mask creation programs. This has required mask designers to expend time consuming and tedious manual analysis and has greatly increased the expense of producing PSM.
The problem with alternating PSM is that the dark field/negative resist strategy does not perform well for non-dense line patterns and the light field/positive resist strategy creates unwanted opaque lines corresponding to the 0.degree./180.degree. transitions in the mask.
Accordingly, in order to employ alternating PSM for isolated patterns, it is necessary to solve the problems with the light field/positive resist strategy and to develop a method for automatically creating compensation or trim masks for eliminating the effect of unwanted opaque lines which form along 0.degree./180.degree. transitions.